Artist Of The Week - Jewn Sabbath

Born in Hawaii, but a California native since the age of five, Jewn Sabbath has been making a name for himself in the music world with his mixture of reggae, blues, rock, Hip-Hop and soul, all the while playing his guitar. He’ll soon be releasing his debut album, Absinthe Minded, which was conceived and written while on a vacation from, well, everything. You see, Jewn, at the time, was in hiding. He describes the album that has come from that experience as a reflection of his time in Hollywood, a time that very few, if anyone shares. Recently Jewn called in to my radio show and we talked about some of those experiences, the 180 he’s done in life since then and what his goals are now that he’s a changed man.

Adam Bernard: You have led a very interesting life. Tell me about your Hollywood experience.
Jewn Sabbath: My experience in Hollywood was nothing like the “Hollywood experience,” in fact is was pretty dark and heavy. It was kind of gritty. My music is straight from the LA underground and there’s nothing commercial about it right now. It’s real gritty and that’s why it sounds gritty, that’s why it sounds the way it does. It was definitely not glamorous. I wasn’t doing any extra work and I wasn’t a waiter or any of that stuff. Actually I was in the street just trying to make my way, sleeping on couches in studios and all that stuff. I was battling personal problems and also trying to get myself out as a respected musician. I was basically doing whatever I had to do to get by. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of this but like pawning rent to own stuff to get by. That’s the life of Hollywood right there. I was getting a lot of music done, but everything else was dwindling. But the music was there and within a year I found myself with 19 solid songs that I felt I could put on an album.

Adam Bernard: What really ended up pushing you to do the music? I know you had some outside influences in your life.
Jewn Sabbath: Yes I did, I came from a lot of weird things and a violent upbringing. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s true. What pushed me to music is that I had to change my lifestyle from something very negative to doing what I do now, and I want to be involved on a humanitarian level, on a level where I can actually make a difference without having to vote for the lesser of two evils. I want to really have a voice and make a difference in some people’s lives and I feel like I can do that through music. It’s a good catalyst for me to get to the next level of my ultimate goal. I’m a humanitarian at heart, I want to do something like that and get involved with the nitty gritty of things where things are really lacking and not just with people but with the environment and a lot of stuff.

Adam Bernard: How has coming from a negative place affected the way you are now? Did coming from such negativity breed the positive because you got out?
Jewn Sabbath: Most definitely. Lucking I grew a conscious sometime in my life, at about 17. At 17 I started to learn that maybe I shouldn’t be doing the things I did. I had already dropped out of high school and I was involved with things I shouldn’t have been in and I had to go into hiding for some reasons. Within those two years I was in hiding, between the ages of 16 and 18 I had to self-educate myself and I had to learn about things that were going on. That’s pretty much what changed it for me.

Adam Bernard: Talk to me about the music you created during that time up to now. You’ve recorded some songs for your upcoming CD so tell me about how you got into the music industry and what kind of music you’re putting out there for the people?
Jewn Sabbath: Well I’ve been doing music for about seven or eight years now. I pretty much did it for myself. I started playing guitar first then started producing my own songs and eventually I realized I had a little bit of aptitude in it and I’ve been honing it since. I originally started doing blues and rock music and something about the style that I produced got me involved in the Hip-Hop world. I was working with some really good producers and people from Ruff Ryders and The Russell Simmons Music Group and a couple other underground Hip-Hop artists. Tre from The Pharcyde is on my first single, “Babble On.”

Adam Bernard: Finally, what can people not draw out of your lyrics, but instead have to draw out of you, the person?
Jewn Sabbath: What my true intentions are with music. That’s it’s not for me fully about music but being able to get to a level where I can actually do things on a very positive level with humanity and what’s going on with the environment, just trying to strike awareness without having to sound like I’m preaching or anything like that. I’m trying to let people know that if you fail the system, or if the system fails you, you still have hope to do something that you truly love and do something with your life and there’s a way to achieve this goal with balance and I’m trying to touch on that without sounding like one of those people who just want to talk about politics. I do enjoy music and I want to do my best to make good music everybody can enjoy and at the same time, as time goes on, they’ll realize that I actually have something to say.

You can check out some of Jewn's work on MySpace at http://myspace.com/realabsinthemindedmusic.